Game Of Thrones Scripts Leaked After Major HBO Hack

HBO, the production company behind the hugely popular Game of Thrones TV series has become the latest in a long line of high profile companies who have found their IT systems the subject of an attack by determined hackers.

It’s not just episodes of Thrones that have been taken by the hackers. According to one report by Variety, apparently there have been thousands of internal company documents stolen, including the personal information of several employees, and passwords of at least one senior executive of HBO.

“HBO recently experienced a cyber-incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information,” a statement from the company reads. “We immediately began investigating the incident [after it was discovered] and are working with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms. Data protection is a top priority at HBO, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the data we hold.” In a separate email to employees, HBO chairman, Richard Piepler, said that the attack was “disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing.”

Battle of the Bastards

While specific details about exactly what data has been stolen, several websites and forums claim to have leaked content containing spoilers and character arcs of upcoming episodes, most notably, the soon to be aired, “Spoils of War.”

The hackers also claim to have stolen full episodes from season 3 of ‘Ballers,’ and ‘Insecure.’ There have also been reports that early episodes of series such as ‘Barry,’ have also been leaked; Barry is not due to be released until sometime in 2018.

Winter is Coming

Hollywood companies have found themselves the increasing target of hacker in the last few years. Disney found itself threatened by hackers who threatened to release pirated copies of the latest Pirates’ of the Caribbean movie if Disney did not pay a bitcoin ransom. Netflix found itself in the same boat in April when hackers said they would release the latest season of ‘Orange is new black.’